Best Blocking Method I Ever Learned

I wasn't feeling well yesterday and, since Friday is only a half day, I decided to stay home. I took advantage of the time to block the Krokus doily I finished back in September. This doily is way bigger than I thought it was and that's what delayed the blocking.











I have to say that the best blocking I ever learned came when I did the Magickal Earth shawl from A Gathering of Lace. I have blocking wires and I've never had much success trying to use them. I always thought I was just odd. The item needs to be wet and then I would try and feed the wires through. It would hurt my back and I'd get all wet. It just wasn't working for me. When I blocked the shawl it tells you to run white thread (I use crochet cotton) through all the points and just make sure they all go in the same direction. In other words, if you start by inserting the needle from back to front you continue that way all the way around the shawl. I did that and the blocking, which took up almost my entire queen size bed, was a lot easier that I expected. Two weeks ago at Snb I brought the Krokus doily with me and did the same thing. I just never got around to wetting it and blocking it. Instead of having to pin each crocheted loop I just pinned the centre of each flower on the border. It makes the loops pin out much more evenly and it saves my back. Instead of hundreds and hundreds of pins I used somewhere between 30 and 40 pins. I am a complete convert now to this method of blocking. I don't need the wires anymore. Now to decide if I want to hold on to them or not.